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Scan to Evernote in 1-step with a ScanSnap

Posted by Alex Pachikov on 08 Feb 2010

Posted by Alex Pachikov on 08 Feb 2010

Scanning into Evernote is a great way to bridge your physical and digital worlds. If you’re anything like me, then you probably have pieces of paper, business cards, documents, and precious napkins thrown across every available surface. Unlike me, you probably don’t have a compulsive urge to scan everything within arm’s reach. But you could! All you have to do is set up your scanner just right, and you too will be one click away from having all your stuff in Evernote.

Setup

Setup is quick and easy:

Make sure you have the ScanSnap Manager software installed

Next, download and run the utility

The utility will create two profiles in the ScanSnap Manager: a “Document Scan” profile for created PDF scanned documents and a “Notes Scan” profile for everything else, including anything with handwriting.

No ScanSnap? No problem.

If you don’t have a ScanSnap, there’s a good chance that you can still configure your scanner to work with Evernote. The general idea is to have your scanner send scans to Evernote.exe (PC) or Evernote.app (Mac). The step-by-step instruction may vary from device to device.

Win a scanner at MacWorld

On a related note, for a chance to win a Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner – come see Evernote at MacWorld in the Fujitsu booth (Booth #853).

The download link above points to a ZIP file with an EXE file in it. Where do I get the Evernote.app??? On the manual setup page it shows Snapscan passing the document to Evernote.app. The video says it OCR’s the document and there is an option to create a “Searchable PDF”. I don’t see that option in the Mac version of the Snapscan software.

Alex Pachikov—

Pishabh,

You can set it up on the mac very easily (follow the instructions on http://evernote.com/fujitsu ), we just don’t have an automated tool to do this for you (yet).

-Alex

Mark M—

How about the “Searchable PDF” option on the manual setup? Is it there and I’m just missing it?

Andrew Sinkov—

@Mark M, the Document Scan option will create a PDF document. If you’re a Premium subscriber, then we’ll make that PDF searchable.

Evernote.app is Evernote. You can see it in your Applications folder.

Justin—

I think have setup the s300m with Evernote on my Mac and it is crazy easy. What interest me are the “optimal settings”. I have played with the settings (B&W vs color, resolution, etc) and would love to know what Evernote would prefer.

Phil—

Does the new Windows client work with Scansnap?

Tony—

I think I can get this done with my Brother scanner, but was wondering what file I should have the jpg file saved into for EN to be able to “see” it?

Tony—

After going to http://evernote.com/fujitsu and reading this again it answered my questions and it also works GREAT on my Brother multi-function scanner. Thanks Evernote!

Scott—

I’m a mac guy and a professional organizer. Two products I always recommend to my clients are Evernote and Scansnap. PLEASE make the app for Mac.

jacobian—

what kind of scanners does it support? every scanner then?

Alex Pachikov—

@Phil – Yes Evernote 3.5 works with scanners.

@Mark M – you can enable the Searchable PDF option. Just be sure that the whole document is processed, not just the first page (its an option). Alternatively, as Andrew said, if you are a Premium user – we will OCR it for you.

@Justin – the settings are up to you. I think 200dpi color scan is a good compromise between quality and size

Peter—

Phil wrote: @Phil – Yes Evernote 3.5 works with scanners.

I couldn’t find any menu item for importing images from scanners. What am I missing, Phil?

Pete

Dirk—

Not even a Mac beta?

Dissapointing

Mark M—

@Alex Pachikov – can you post a screencap of where the option to enable the Searchable PDF on the Mac Scansnap software? I just can’t find it. Maybe the option needs to be searchable. 🙂 I am a premium user but I rather do the OCR locally.

Michael Gort—

Without the new utility, it is easy to set up a profile that has Evernote as the program. Results in a scan to Evernote. I’ve been using it for some time now.

Jason Barone—

@Peter.

You have to add Evernote to the “Application” menu:
Double click the ScanSnap icon, Application Tab, Add or Remove, Add, Browse, navigate to C:Program Files (x86) if on 64 bit, then select the Evernote folder and select the Evernote.exe.

Setup a profile and select the Application as your newly added Evernote.

Upon scanning, Evernote launches automatically and adds whatever you just scanned.

Rob de Jong—

Great service! I have had the ScanSnap for a while but hadnot figured out how to scan direct into Evernote. Thanks, one more happy premium user.

eric kaufman—

I downloaded and extracted the profile maker application, but when I go to run it I get the Windows error “Profile Maker has stopped working” I have The Scan Snap Manager Installed. Does something else need to be turned off or on that is interfering?

I have already set up profiles that seem to be working well per Evernotes earlier instructions, I just wanteds to see what Fujitsu had put together and if these settings for the profiles are any different. Thanks for your help.

grehorst—

Experiencing the same error as Eric… I’m on 64 bit vista…

juice—

Won’t work here on W7 64-bit Home Premium. (Not that it matters much, it’s dead easy to setup manually, but it should say which systems it does and doesn’t work on.)

eric kaufman—

yeah I’m on vista 64 bit as well. Usually a program will just load onto x86 and run fine, as did the original ScanSnap software, so I’m not sure that is going on. Like I said, I was able to set things up alright myself without this profile maker, I just want to see what settings they recommend. BTW Evernote, I still wish when I do a search and it finds a hot on a pdf, it would highlight for me where in the document it found the word, without me leaving Evernote to do a second word search in Adobe Reader.

trioculus—

Yeah, not working for me on Win7 Ultimate 64-bit. ProfileMaker is crashing due to a unhandled null reference exception. Compatibility settings aren’t helping either.

Roger—

I don’t have a ScanSnap, but being able to scan things into Evernote from my Canon wireless scanner with one button is a huge win!

Andy—

I’m with everyone else – no Mac support, lame.

ethicalcreditrepair—

Awesome service, like to have scansnap to for my evernote. Its very useful

Ron—

What is the difference with using to import folder into evernote (which you use as an output folder for your scanner)??

Alex Pachikov—

Sorry for the delay in my reply. I will try to answer everyone’s questions as one post:

@Dirk – we have a mac app, and the scanner integration works on a mac. We only don’t have an automatic script to set it up, but the manual instructions are short, find them here: evernote.com/fujitsu

@Mark M – i was incorrect. There are versions of Mac ScanSnap software that didn’t come with OCR. Sorry.

@eric kaufman @grehorst @juice – you are right, there are problems with running it on 64-bit machines. We’ll check with fujitsu if this is possible to fix.

@Andy – the solution works on a mac, please see above.

@Ron – import folders take more steps to setup, but will essentially do this same thing

John Pearce—

The EXE failed to install on Windows 7 HP with an error message about a failure of Profilemaker.

But question: What advantage does this have over just scanning to a watched folder. That’s what I’ve been doing, and it’s working very well.

Steve—

I own a card scan scanner for scanning business cards. Is there a way for me to get this scanner to work with Evernote?

Alex Pachikov—

The latest version of the profile maker has been updated to work on 64-bit versions of windows. Please re-download from the link above if you experienced some issues.

EL—

Works on my Brother MFC. I set up a custom scan profile — chose Scan to Image, designated Evernote as the target application (the machine found Evernote on its own and included it among my options on the target application drop-down), chose scan to .pdf, and presto.

Rob—

EL, when you do this is the PDF searchable, meaning is it included in the results of an Evernote search? I’ve found that my scans are not when I scan from my MFC as a PDF to the desktop and then place in Evernote.

freshy—

Hi Rob,
i use a Brother MFC too, and as EL, I set up the Custom Scan Target Application to Evernote. Only I chose the JPG format to make my scans searchable. As I understand, the free account doesn’t search the content of PDFs but it does JPGs. I’ve noticed that information from PDFs receipts I get, such as receipts from the Apple Store, the information IS searchable unlike the ones I scan myself.

Anthony—

I do mine a bit differently. Within SnapScan I create a SnapScan Profile that sends the scans to a certain folder that coincides with Names I have for each notebook:

-Notes
-Checks
-Bills
-Etc.
– …and so on…

In the Evernote application, under account properties, on the file import tab, I have Evernote Monitor each folder and import the scans into it’s notebook according to which folder it’s in.

The only issue I have had, is that Evernote will also import the temp files that Acrobat creates while writing to that folder. I have to go in every so often and delete them from my Evernote. As a workaround, I usually don’t keep Evernote open while I’m scanning. Once I finish scanning everything (I usually build up a pile of “to scan” documents) I start up Evernote and it imports all my scans (without the temp files because they are deleted by Acrobat once the PDF creation is completed).

Michael green—

Anthony,
Your use-case rocks! Managing my notes flow is now MUCH easier with my scansnap. I have docs at work and docs at home. I want them to be separate notebooks and now I can do that.

Thank you for taking the time to post.

Michael green—

Here’s some tuning info with a pro and a con:

I’ve set my scansnap to scan to file, instead of folder. I’ve disabled the rename file on scan option. This drops the file with the timestamp name into the folder of my choice, but without the ini file getting into evernote. The reason the ini is getting sucked in, is (I suspect) because of the delay while the popup dialog is open waiting for you to accept the scan.

pro: no ini files
con: no preview of scan, no ability to rename the scan before it gets to Evernote.

Michael green—

Another way to avoid the ini file, and get the ability to rename…

Scan to folder but pick the parent folder. For example, create a folder called ‘scans’ and a subfolder called ‘bizcards’. “Scan to folder” ‘scans’, then name the file, browse down to the subfolder ‘bizcards’ and save the file. Now you’ve renamed it and put it into the correct folder. The INI process occurs in the ‘scans’ folder.

Samir—

Steve,

I like you have Cardscan. I don’t know any way to scan without using their software. I too wish there was a way and it could then be exported to Evernote.

Joe E—

Gee… I buy a $400 scanner after it was suggested by Evernote to find I cannot scan to my Mac. Even after the video says you can. However the video, they scan to PC, then Evernote copies to Mac and iPhone.

Its been since 2/8/2010 that the first comment was posted on here, its now 8/27/10 and Still no Mac Support????

Come on Evernote, step it up. The image capture solution you point out sucks and don’t work like it’s supposed to.

Brooks—

Joe, you can set up the ScanSnap to scan to Evernote. I made a video that shows how: http://www.documentsnap.com/scansnap-evernote-chocolate-peanut-butter/

LuCaS - Lukáš Nachtigall—

Hi i have Windows 7 32bit, evernote premium, and scansnap s300.

I have few questions :

1.] when i run EvernoteProfileMaker.exe it crashes and did not work.
How can i fix it to use scansnap with evernote ?

2.] I have scanned many documents to scansnap as PDF how can i tranfer it to evernote ?

3.] I tryied to convert pdf in scansnap to serchable ocr format, but nothing happens and searching is not available..

thanks for your help..

Thanks LuCaS

JBenson2—

Anyone notice the scanned image was already on the Mac screen before the scanning was finished? Hmmmmm

Phil—

I have Scan Snap S300 and can scan directly to Evernote, which is great. How do I edit the note after it’s scanned? For instance, if I duplex scan a magazine article and want to delete the full page ads.

Echoing Mr. Robert Follis… Still no Mac support for this utility? Or are we just not seeing it?

Todd Sansom—

Never mind… Robert, look here.

Brooks
09/01/2010 09:08AM
Joe, you can set up the ScanSnap to scan to Evernote. I made a video that shows how: http://www.documentsnap.com/scansnap-evernote-chocolate-peanut-butter/

Pran—

Can I selectively send documents scanned into Scansnap Organizer to Evernote. Can I setup ‘Action’ button for Evernote, that way I want to send only select documents from Scansnap Organizer to Evernote. Any help is appreciated.

Richard Burton—

I have a fijistu fi-5120C scanner. Can I scan directly into Evernote with this scanner?

henry—

I also have a fijistu scanner. I want to scan into Evernote with my scanner, is it possible?

Nicolas Echavarria—

Can we use scan to evernote with a ScanSnap N1800?
How?

Thanks!

MieYaginuma—

Hi David, the integration we have with Fujitsu is for scanning directly to Evernote, so I haven’t scanned directly to a Mac myself, but it can be done. It’s just a setting. ScanSnap was at MacWorld recently demoing this. With the new iX1500, you can scan directly to your iPhone or iPad now.

Moe—

Is there a way to scan directly into evernote and it transcribe the business cards like the camera feature does on the iphone or ipad app?

Thomas Weber—

Quick question about the ScanSnap scanner. Before I spend the $500 bucks for this pierce of equipment, I would like to know if it scans to the desktop or any other location besides Evernote.